Just this week, Conestoga College has issued nearly 400 layoff notices.
After announcing via an internal email to staff on Tuesday that 181 full-time faculty are being laid off, the college announced during a virtual town hall Thursday afternoon that an additional 197 support staff will also be laid off.
All layoff notices issued this week will come into effect in March, about a month before the end of the college’s winter term.
“We’re taking care of [our members]. We’re going to support them,” Leopold Koff, the president of OPSEU Local 237, the union representing faculty at the college, told CBC K-W’s The Morning Edition host Craig Norris on Friday. “Without us, there is no college.”
Koff was originally among the faculty whose jobs were affected by Conestoga’s program suspensions, but with his “seniority and other skills and competencies,” he was “given an involuntary transfer to another program.”
Two town halls were held separately by Local 237 and Local 238 on Thursday.
Local 238 had a virtual meeting early Thursday afternoon where the layoffs to support staff were announced.
Local 237 held its own town hall later in the afternoon. It was to provide full-time faculty affected by the layoffs “support mechanisms, structures on how to do grievances, how to take care of themselves, [and] counseling services.”
Vikki Poirier is the president of Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) Local 238, the union representing support staff at the college. She’s among the employees who received a layoff notice on Thursday. (John Dalusong/CBC News)
‘It’s devastating,’ staff member says
Vikki Poirier is the president of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) Local 238, representing Conestoga’s support staff.
She also joined CBC K-W’s The Morning Edition on Friday and said the Thursday meeting with the college was one-sided.
“We couldn’t speak. We couldn’t ask questions. Our video wasn’t on,” she said.
“It was the human resources reading from a script,” she added. “It’s devastating.”
Unlike Koff who was moved to another position, Poirier was not. She is one of the 197 support staff who received a layoff notice.
Poirier was among the hundreds of Conestoga support staff who went on a five-week strike in September after the College Employer Council (CEC) and OPSEU failed to reach a collective agreement.
After more than a month on the picket line, CEC and OPSEU reached a tentative deal, promptly ending the strike.
“We just can’t seem to catch a break,” she said. “And to not have the college president, the leader of the college, attend and deliver that message to his employees, in my opinion, was rather cowardly.”
Poirier said affected positions include librarians and student success advisers, services that she said students might no longer receive.
Need to ‘align resources,’ college says
CBC News reached out to Conestoga College for comments on how the layoffs will affect program courses and student services.
They did not address the questions, but did say the decision was ” not taken lightly and reflect our responsibility to align resources and ensure long-term sustainability.”
“Like all 24 publicly funded colleges in Ontario, Conestoga is required by the Ministry of Colleges and Universities to present a balanced budget each year,” a Conestoga College representative told CBC News in an emailed statement.
“Without significant reductions in operating costs, the college faces a fiscal deficit. To achieve a balanced budget, we must align our resources with the reality that we have lost thousands of international students and will likely continue to be impacted, given the recent announcement of further reductions to international student caps for 2026-2028,” the statement further explained.
“Simply put, we no longer require the same complement of faculty, staff and administrators as in 2024.”
In August, Conestoga College has reported a $121 million surplus in its 2024-2025 fiscal year.
Conestoga College’s associate director of corporate communications Erika Kastner told CBC News in August that the surplus was a “result of careful planning and responsible financial management.”
But, Kastner added, the college faces a fiscal deficit for 2025-26, “like most other public post-secondary institutions in Ontario.”
Mobilizing in the new year
Poirier says she will meet with Local 238 members on Friday to walk them through the grievance process.
She said Local 237 and 238 plan to mobilize together in the new year to hold the college accountable.
“Is it through grievances? Is it through a non-confidence vote for our college president? We’ll see how that looks in the new year,” Poirier said.
“We’re going to mobilize again to get the reputation of Conestoga back because it’s stained now,” Koff explained. “It’s our future, and we want to correct what’s there. We’re going to take action, whatever it might be.”
To date, Conestoga College has laid off more than 550 employees.